M1: Kick-off Meeting AER May 2016 at Mountains of the Moon University

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    AER team with farmer representatives during the AER-Kick off meeting
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    At our partner Kiima Foods in Kasese
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    Farms and plots scattered on the slops surrounding a village in the Rwenzori Mountains

In the beginning of May 2016 the APPEAR Project Strengthening of Higher Education, Research and Community Outreach in Agro-Ecology in the Rwenzori Region in Western Uganda - AER Kick-off meeting took place at the Mountains of the Moon University (MMU) in Fort Portal, Rwenzori region in Western Uganda. The meeting was jointly organised by members from MMU and BOKU (also including members of the Sustainable Agriculture Trainers Network (SATNET / http://www.satnet.org.ug)) to streamline contents and formalities for a successful project implementation.

Working in the field of Agroecology (AE) is equivalent to open up multifaceted spaces for mutual and systemic learning processes in a transdisciplinary setting. Therefore this meeting was seen to prepare the ground - with inputs from all sides - for vivid discussions to come in the AER follow-up meetings on the main concepts of the AER agenda, such as the theoretical framing of AE, transdisciplinarity, systemic teaching/learning AE, but also the differences in the educational systems and its implications on the process of generating and acquiring of knowledge in higher education, community outreach with the means of farmer field schools. The discussion meeting were accompanied with in-field visits to apply transdisciplinarity from the earliest day.

During the in-filed visits the AER team had the opportunity to discuss several initiatives and entries for deeper collaboration within AER and beyond. Most important was the visit – in collaboration with Kiima Foods (https://kiimafoods.wordpress.com) – of a village in Munkunyu sub county (located in the south of Fort Portal in Kasese district, which is one of the seven districts of the Rwenzori Region) which is potentially suitable for further AER interventions.

Beside the work in Fort Portal at MMU, BOKU coordinator met up with consultants experienced in the institutionalisation of AE in Uganda from the Organic sector (UGOCert) and representatives from Ugandan Martyrs University, Nkozi, to include them from the beginning and to share their insights and lessons learnt with MMU and BOKU team members.